Random Dr. Morlo Headcanons and what the heck was up with him and Max in the 40s
cw: WWII, human torture, homophobia mention
Dr. Sebastian Augustus Morlo Parker is a closeted gay man of questionable national origin with a birth date somewhere in 1920s.
During WWII, he was a government employed scientist that was hired to try to make a "truth serum" that they could implement on prisoners of war and suspected spies in interrogation or even in casual conversation. They were most interested in trying to develop a serum that could be administered covertly unknown to the target.
He met Max Mercury when he was Quicksilver and they formed somewhat of a friendship, Max admires scientists and Morlo was not allowed to talk about his work so it just riled up Max's curiosity through the roof. Morlo was a puzzle to Max, and Max was also a puzzle to Morlo. Morlo was also not afraid to punch out bullies either so he got a lot of gold stars from Max very quickly.
Morlo often just went by "Bastian" during this time by acquaintances and Max affectionately called him "Bastian you bastard" in greeting or exasperation.
Max borrowed Morlo's genius from time to time to analyze various chemicals in his own cases to confirm YES this is in fact cocaine, or to even go over a crime scene for things he might have missed. Max is smart, but he is not a scientist nor did he have the lab facilities Morlo had nor the government clearance.
That government clearance was very valuable to Max so he was using Morlo just a little bit because of it, but they did have some genuine fondness for each other despite some mutual exploitation of abilities.
Eventually, Max finds out what Morlo's secret work was. The methods to create this "truth serum" resulted in the test subjects (all of which being people who were destitute, transient or immigrants) having permanent disabilities and neurological damage. While no one died, the use of the serum at all stages resulted in excruciating pain to where Morlo noted that what he had made was more akin to a torture serum than a truth serum and he doubted one could ever be made. He was never successful making anything close to this serum (or was he?)
Anyway Max was pretty cranky over this so he did what anyone would do.
He burned down his entire lab and all the notes, samples, and everything Morlo had worked on over the last few years. Including numerous more important projects to Morlo that had nothing to do with this "Truth Serum" like his eternal youth serum.
Morlo's bosses (the government) were PISSED, blamed him for it entirely, stripped him of his clearance, threatened to throw him in an asylum because they knew he was gay, then kicked him out totally discredited so it would be unlikely he would ever be hired by anyone ever again as a reputable biochemist effectively leaving him unemployable in his field of passion.
Then he found out MAX was behind it all and that was Dr. Sebastian Augustus Morlo Parker's villain origin story where he then spent about 6 years until 1949 trying to kill Max.
He actually thought his gas attack that landed Max in the Claiborne's home actually killed him - after all Max totally vanished after this and no reports of Quicksilver were mentioned while he was in jail. He had... complicated feelings about that.